Newswise — Barcelona, Spain—12 November 2018—ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, held a session this afternoon at ISPOR Europe 2018, “Health Technology Assessment Value-Based Pricing Versus WHO Fair Pricing: Which Delivers Universal Health Coverage?” [IP8]. 

In this session, the speakers discussed whether value-based pricing or fair pricing is the right basis for decisions about which drugs to include in universal health coverage benefit packages for middle- and low-income countries.

Speakers for this session included:

  • Moderator: Adrian Towse, MA, MPhil, Office of Health Economics, London, England, UK
  • Kalipso Chalkidou, MD, PhD, Center for Global Development, London, England, UK
  • Sarah Garner, PhD, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made the case that essential, life-saving medicines should not be evaluated by value-based pricing alone. WHO has stated that in addition to looking at differential pricing, cost effectiveness, and local thresholds, “fair pricing,” in which affordability and actual production and research costs are considerations, should be included in assessments. 

Dr Chalkidou supported the use of health technology assessment as an integral part of middle- and low-income country moves toward universal health coverage. In contrast, Dr Garner argued for the fair pricing approach that WHO has advocated and addressed issues including affordability, the need for effective procurement arrangements, and for transparency of R&D and production costs. 

ISPOR is recognized globally as the leading professional society in HEOR and its role in improving healthcare decisions. ISPOR Europe 2018 is the leading HEOR conference in Europe and draws more than 5000 healthcare stakeholders, including researchers and academicians, assessors and regulators, payers and policy makers, the life sciences industry, and patient engagement organizations. 

Additional information on ISPOR Europe 2018 can be found here. Released presentations from the conference can be found here. Interested parties can follow news and developments from the conference on social media using the hashtag #ISPORBarcelona

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Meeting Link: ISPOR Europe 2018